Monday, October 12, 2009

This weekend one of my best friends got married. She's been dating this same guy as long as I've known her, and they're great together. It was an awesome celebration, lots of Kansan folk there. The Kansan folk I don't get to see very often — the ones who graduated a year or two ago and are now scattered across the country. Last time I saw them was the last wedding. Now all three Matt-and-Sarah couples are married.

So today, after an unsuccessful two-hour search for a missing car key, Drew and I headed home from small-town northeastern Kansas.

In three days, I leave town again, but for much more glamorous NYC. It will be my first time (suggestions are welcome as to what I should do!). Tuesday night I work so tonight or tomorrow was my only option to fill my baking fix. My new Kitchenaid mixer has been beckoning to me and begging for use, so I thought I'd take a stab at its cookbook that came along with it.

Dinner tonight — tangy BBQ meatballs and rice. Homemade pasta (like from the dough and everything!) tomorrow. In between: Ghirardelli chocolate cookies.I'm not really a chocolate person. It's super weird, I know, especially because my mom is a chocolate addict. My grandpa, though, didn't like it either, so I chalk it up to genetics. But I'm a sucker for a good brownie or double chocolate cookie. This recipe called for Ghirardelli dark chocolate as the base, then semisweet chips and walnuts. I am not a sucker for walnuts or any kind of nuts in my cookies. So I substituted white chocolate chips. Who wouldn't like that?

It drives me nuts when recipes aren't written well. Not unclear directions, per say, but just the wrong directions. It said 375˚ for 12 to 14 minutes. The first batch burned, but that was my fault. The second batch was fine, but I took them out way early. The third batch approached 12 minutes and they were burnt.

You would think people who write recipes would test them. There's nothing wrong with the oven; other recipes have worked out fine. Half of these cookies worked out fine. But I didn't want half a recipe of cookies.

Either way, I got my baking fix in, and now I know not to use this recipe again. The dinner recipe worked fine, and I hope the pasta recipe for tomorrow is fine too. I'm sure once I get home from NYC I will have lots of things I will want to mimic in recipes. But for tomorrow, the un-burnt half of my cookies will be snatched up by all my current Kansan friends.